Charles Antoine Lemaire (1800-1871) was a French Botanist whose speciality was Cactaceae. His publishing activity spread over the last 30 years of his life. Gardening papers of that time were few and he raised the standards to include high-quality colour plates.

This work was published 1841-1847 and is exceptionally rare (only 11 copies on record). A 1987 auction book characterized this work as "the rarest work on cacti ever published". Lemaire envisioned a work of some 200 plates but managed only sixteen in this work. This particular copy has fourteen plates, 13" x 21.25", which are copper color printed engravings by Dumenil drawn by Maubert. Lemaires's two-page description follows each plate for each species.

This book was digitized and edited by Wendy Westmoreland. Web design by Debbie Windus. Digitized 5/5/2003.